The present invention relates to pallet-type carriers of the type commonly referred to in the textile industry as peg trays, for use in transporting textile yarn tubes.
Pallet type yarn tube carriers such as conventional peg trays are well known for transporting textile yarn tubes, whether empty or wound with yarn, in closed transport systems, such carriers basically comprising a tube supporting pin extending in upstanding disposition from a circular base plate by which the carriers are set on transporting conveyor belts. It is also known that such tube carriers can be provided with a permanent marking or other coding which serves for destinational control of these carriers during transport, e.g. to enable a given batch or group of yarn tubes to be delivered to a predetermined winding section or station of a bobbin winding machine, such as representatively disclosed in German Offenlegungschrift DE 33 44 473 A1.
In addition, it is known that the particular permanent coding of the carriers can be associated with the tubes placed therein at a tube supply station and that this association can be stored in a central computer for later retrieval to permit the particular origin of the tube to be recognized, such as representatively disclosed in German Offenlegungschrift DE 36 03 002 C2. Disadvantageously, it is only possible with this method to maintain the simple information about the origin of the type supported on the carrier. Storage of more extensive information, such as, for example, yarn qualities and characteristics, is not possible. Further, the association for all tube carriers being transported in the overall transport system must be constantly stored in the central computer. As a result, no analytical evaluation can be performed at the winding stations by their computer, e.g. recognition of excessively frequent yarn breakages, since the winder's computer does not have access to the stored information about the origin of the yarn tube being unwound, even if a reading device for reading the permanent coding of the carrier may be present at the winding station.
German patent application P 40 38 970.7 suggests that tube carriers may be provided with selectively erasable and encodable information carrying devices, e.g. erasable read-write devices, which makes it possible for each tube carrier to be encoded with, and to store information about, the origin of a yarn tube and any other relevant yarn information when a yarn tube is placed on the carrier. This information can be re-read and/or supplemented at any desired location by a reading, erasing and coding device. The exchange of information to and from the information carrying device described in such patent application is accomplished by rotational positioning of the carrier about its axis by an angular amount based upon the angular disposition of the information carrying device on the tube carrier relative to the reading, erasing and coding device. As disclosed in German Offenlegungschrift DE 39 12 488 A1, the tube carrier can be rotationally positioned in advance of the reading, erasing and coding device so that the information carrying device and the reading, erasing and coding device are directly opposite one another. However, a suitable arrangement for accomplishing such positioning involves a considerable additional expense.